NFL Schedule Highlights

In the midst of a flurry of activity late last month, I passed on the opportunity to comment on the release of the 2014 NFL Schedule.

 

First of all, no other league is so universally popular that it can declare the release of its schedule – a la March Madness style – as an event. And yet, that’s what the NFL does each and every year.

 

This year, they even delayed the event and announced there’d be an announcement regarding the announcement (ahem) when the time was right. Honestly, I got to the point where I sort of rolled my eyes. Too much of a good thing…and all that.

 

Anyway, the important part – the schedule announcement came…and the games are on.

 

Looking ahead to the upcoming NFL season, here are a few nuggets I have circled on my calendar.

 

NFL Kickoff Weekend
By virtue of winning Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seattle Seahawks (and their mythical 12th man) earn the right to host the first game of the year. It will be held on September 4 and after all the speculation about who might be the visiting opponent for that year, we learned it will be none other than the Green Bay Packers.

 

Thanksgiving Day

As I wrote last year, Thanksgiving – and the opportunity to watch NFL football on that holiday – is one of my long-time family traditions. Though I don’t root vehemently for the Dallas Cowboys as I did when I was a kid, it’s always a throw-back to get to see how they are playing. This year’s opponent will be Philly. 

 

That’ll be a good way to relax and let the turkey and dressing settle after a long day of chowing down!

 

Titans Games

I have had tickets to the Titans for years and I elected to keep them this one more year after the hiring of new coach Ken Whisenhunt. Honestly, it was getting old to drive over to see a perennial 8-8 team play some opponent in front of a half-full (or half-empty if you’re a pessimist) LP Field crowd.

 

The new coach and the roster shake-up will hopefully breath new life into the practice. After all, it doesn’t seem that long ago that Holly, Paul and I trekked over for the infamous playoff game with the Ravens in 2009.

In the midst of the muck and mire (and a couple miscues and at least one famously blown delay of game call), our Tennessee Titans came up short 13-10.

 

They’ve not been back to the playoffs and it is starting to feel like 2009 was a long time ago. Who knows? Maybe this is the year.

 

In any case, a few of the dates I have circled include the selfsame Dallas Cowboys (Sept. 14), New York Football Giants (Dec. 7) and the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets (when CJ returns to taunt his former fans a week later).

 

I might even try to trek over to the other side of the Smoky Mountains and catch a Carolina Panthers game with my friend Ed this fall. That match-up with Seattle in late October is awfully tempting.

 

Of course, there are always the Peyton vs. Brady games (Denver vs. New England), Super Bowl re-matches (Denver vs. Seattle), rivalry games (San Fran vs. Seattle) and so forth.

 

There are, after all, there are 256 regular season games on the NFL schedule. There are bound to be many instant classics.

 

JG

Originally posted 5/13/2014